The value of electronic card transactions in retail stores is a grim measure of the immediate impact of the lockdown. The value is currently less than half the level prior to the lockdown. It is less than a tenth of the pre-lockdown level for retailers excluding supermarkets, liquor stores, and pharmacies.
We would expect retail spending to recover after the lockdown. But this indicator may also show if there are lasting impacts on spending because of job losses or changed spending behaviours.
We are tracking data supplied by Marketview, Trademe and Chorus, in addition to publicly available data from Tom Tom, Flightradar24 and the Electricity Authority.
The economic situation is changing by the day. Rather than reckons, we need to track the economy as close to in real time as possible, to both understand the health of the economy, the policy actions that may be necessary, and the effectiveness of policies implemented.
Our suite of indicators will be a useful complement to officials’ insights into jobless benefit applications, missed payments for utilities and credit relief requests, among others.
Our first dashboard includes an explanatory note of the data and what they may tell us. We will publish an updated dashboard at least once a week during this time.
